Three veterans of the Clinton White House argued Thursday that 2010 won’t be as big a disaster for Democrats as 1994, even as they fretted about an enthusiasm gap that’s tangible and an economy that’s even worse.

At an hourlong Democratic Governors Association-sponsored panel discussion at the Capital Hilton, former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers emphasized the differences between the two cycles and said Republicans haven’t spent enough time in the wilderness to credibly sell their ideas as fresh.

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“In 1994, Democrats had been in charge for 40 years,” she said. “We hadn’t had a taste of Republican leadership. So they could sort of be all things to all people.”

But a few minutes later, asked about Obama’s role, she suggested the president probably should not heavily campaign for Democratic governors so the focus in those races will remain on local issues.

“We don’t want to federalize all those elections,” Myers said.

Paul Begala, a political adviser in Clinton’s White House, said the mood is more anti-Washington in 2010 than anti-Democrat. Not a single House Republican lost in 1994, he noted, while several could this year.

“The anger is more diffuse,” he said. “It’s less partisan.”

Harold Ickes, deputy White House chief of staff that year, said Democrats won’t be caught off guard this time. He also said Republicans were more united in 1994 behind Newt Gingrich and the Contract with America than they are now, when there are tea party activists to deal with and no clear GOP standard-bearer.

“We were complacent. We were smug. To put it bluntly, we were arrogant and out of touch,” he said. “We clearly have been on red alert for a long, long time.”

While the tea party has fractured the GOP in some races, Ickes conceded that the activists bring enthusiasm now lacking on the left and expressed concern about the number of Democrats who will stay home this year.

“Our base is unhappy,” he said. “It’s pissed off. I think unrightfully so. I think the assumption is they are fair weather on this issue. Politics is a long term, tough business, and it’s fine to be there when the tides are running with you, but you’ve got to be there when the tides are running against you.”

Begala, who joked at the beginning of his presentation that, “here you’ve gathered three of the architects of the greatest Democratic debacle in modern history,” addressed the doomsday scenarios.

“It’s not a wave election. It’s a tsunami election. It’s really big out there,” he said of 2010. “Now, you can survive a tsunami. ... And here’s how: you build an arc.”

Because Clinton won with only 43 percent in a three-way race in 1992, Myers said he came into office facing a lot of skepticism that lingered through the midterms. She said there was still economic unease, even if less than now. She also noted that Clinton raised taxes.

Republicans gained 10 governorships in 1994, and many Republicans predict they’ll pick up more this year.

Democrats think they have good chances in the nation’s most populous states, said Nathan Daschle, the DGA’s executive director. Dismissing talk of an enthusiasm gap as a “noise gap,” he said the DGA is targeting nine states now run by Republicans. He insisted that Republican candidates are more out of the mainstream than they were 16 years ago.

Begala said Democratic candidates are running stronger campaigns, with more money in many cases, than in 1994. He said the party has a good shot at winning open seats in Florida and California and knocking off incumbent Gov. Rick Perry in Texas.

Chris Kofinis, a longtime Democratic strategist who moderated the discussion, noted that exit polls from 2006 show that up to half of voters didn’t make up their minds until the final two months.

“Voters are still winnable,” he said. “This is not an election where people have moved lock, stock and barrel to Republicans and it’s done.”

They are absolutely right. It will not be like 1994...it will be worse. For the past two years, the Democrats have been passing monstrous bills that the public did not want. Quick...name one Democrat running for office touting their Health Care vote FOR the bill. What is that I hear? Crickets? It was, if memory serves, the most important piece of legislation since Social Security, right? Exactly. Democrats who are talking about it are touting their vote AGAINST it. Why? Easy...they voted for a bill Americans did not want. We went to town halls. For the love af all that is holy, we showed up in tea party protests all over the country. We elected Scott Brown in Massachusetts. And the Democrats think we will forget? We were mad. Now we are patient. Looking at the calendar, counting the days, waiting...waiting. TO VOTE! I could go on and on, but I will not. For you see, I am waiting, organizing, waiting...I could be at death's door on Nov. 2, and I will have someone give me an absentee ballot. Can the Dems say that?

No my guess is these folks see a lot more polling data and don't exclusively watch and parrot Fox News. So all you republicans who want to go back to policies that are against your economic interest, keep telling yourselves whatever you need to hear and whatever Fox tells you to believe. See how that'll work for you.

These staffers are cheerleaders for their respective teams, for God's sakes. What do you expect them to say?

Thank you for pointing that out.

The press thinks we are uneducated rubes. After the David Weigel fiasco I realized they are all pock faced kids who regurgitate what their liberal profs told them. They haven't had a single original idea in years and eevn if they did the would be too afraid to say it out loud. They need to be liked by their wimpy peers.

I hope you "conservatives" get exactley what you want.Your desires are based on nothing factual, just a sheer hatred for our President.No plan, just get Obama out.You'll learn once you have neo-fascists like Palin and Rove or better yet Rush running this country. It's YOU who really hate America because if you loved your country you wouldn't want to put it back into the hands of those like Bush.

I hope you "conservatives" get exactley what you want.Your desires are based on nothing factual, just a sheer hatred for our President.No plan, just get Obama out.You'll learn once you have neo-fascists like Palin and Rove or better yet Rush running this country. It's YOU who really hate America because if you loved your country you wouldn't want to put it back into the hands of those like Bush.